


Consequences

by EvelynThursday



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Character is Injured while Protecting Another, Concussions, Gen, Head Injury, Headaches & Migraines, Hiding Medical Issues, Hiding injuries from onlookers but comforter knows, Medical Inaccuracies, Nausea, Treating Wounds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-09
Updated: 2019-05-09
Packaged: 2020-02-29 06:05:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18772768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvelynThursday/pseuds/EvelynThursday
Summary: The Doctor steps in after one of her friends slips up and faces the consequences. Thankfully Yaz has her back.





	Consequences

**Author's Note:**

  * For [frith_in_thorns](https://archiveofourown.org/users/frith_in_thorns/gifts).



> I've never written for an exchange before. It was a challenge but it was fun, I hope my recipient likes what i have written. I shall have to keep my eye out for more exchanges.

“The punishment is complete.” 

Ryan, Yaz and Graham jumped at the suddenly growled proclamation, turning towards a pair of ornate wooden doors that they hadn’t heard open behind them. The Doctor was led towards them through it, flanked either side by two muscular alien monks. She was a little ruffled, coat creased and hair mussed. She gave her three friends a wide smile, only spoiled by a bruised and split lip.

Graham had inadvertently insulted the monks of the Temple of Arkansonn. How was he to know that touching a flower on the Sacred Oleander bush was a desecration? Or that particular bush whose vivid blue flowers he was admiring was  _ the _ Sacred Oleander? The monks that caught them would not let them leave without punishment. What the punishment would entail they weren’t told, only that it would take an hour or so, by the Doctor’s calculation from the local measure of time. She had volunteered to take the punishment without hesitation despite Graham’s protests, she was in charge and responsible for the group. The monks had taken her away leaving the three humans under guard in one of the temples smaller prayer rooms.

“You guys alright?” Asked the Doctor as her escort moved to the sides of the room, scowling in their direction.

“We’re fine,” answered Yaz, Graham nodding and Ryan murmuring a “yeah” in agreement. “You, on the other hand, look a mess.”

“I’m sure it’s not as bad as it looks.”

The Doctor wiped the back of her hand against the cut on her lip, blood streaking across it which she wiped on her trousers. Yaz raised her eyebrow. “I’m fine gang. But I think they would appreciate it if we would leave their planet as quickly as possible.” She turned to the watching monks and gave them a small wave before striding towards the exit. “Come along fam.”

The Doctor lead the group out of the temple, head held high. She ignored the looks and whispers the group got as they crossed the courtyard and made her way along the winding streets towards the parked Tardis.

“Are you ok?” Asked Yaz as the crowds thinned. Ryan and Graham had got into a discussion about gardening (What would the great Monty Don say about the temple’s garden?) and paid no notice to Yaz’s quiet question to the Doctor “You’re moving a bit stiffly. What did they do to you anyway?”

“I’m fine, they only roughed me up a little. I’ve had worse. A few hours rest and I’ll be as good a new.” Yaz nodded and dropped the question but kept an eye on the Doctor - her gait looked unsteady, just like Yaz remembered her friends walking down the cross channel ferry corridors on their school trip to the World War Two battlefields of Belgium.

The sight of the Tardis was a welcome relief, all ready to leave the planet and the eyes they could feel on their backs. 

Graham made to disappear into the depths of the Tardis almost as soon as he stepped through the doorway but stopped and turned back after passing the console. 

“I’m starving, Doc,” he said. “Should have packed another sandwich, those monks wouldn't listen to us when we asked for food whilst, well, you weren't with us.” He paused. “You sure you're alright?”

“I'm sure. Go get your food.” She grinned at him and he grinned back, continuing his way to the kitchen. Ryan followed behind him, leaving Yaz and the Doctor in the control room alone.

“Let’s get out of here, shall we?” Asked the Doctor as she rounded the console, flicking switches, pushing leavers and giving the hourglass a spin.

The Tardis lurched violently to one side. Yaz, used to the rough ride by now braced herself against a pillar. However the jolt took the Doctor by surprise, knocking her off her feet. She reached out to stop her fall but was too slow, smacking her head on the console and landing in a heap on the floor. She didn't move. 

Yaz leapt towards the console, floor bucking under her feet, and threw down the leaver the Doctor had once shown her as the emergency stop. The Tardis gave one final shudder then went still.

“Doctor?” Yaz called to the unmoving figure, rushing to her side and falling on the metal floor. “Doctor!” She rolled the Time Lord onto her back, the movement eliciting a moan and the Doctor slowly blinking her eyes open with a grimace. 

“Yaz,” she groaned. “Why ‘m I on th’ floor? Ooh my head hurts.”

“You managed to hit your head on the console, that’s why it hurts. The Tardis was shaking all over the place and you lost your balance. I pulled the stop lever, so I think we’ve landed but I have no idea where we are. But the Tardis hasn’t made any warning noises so I think we are safe for now.”

“You sure we’ve stopped? Everything’s kinda still moving. Spinning.”

“You hit your head hard. You were unconscious for a tiny bit there. Less than an a minute but that’s still really bad.”

“I’m fine Yaz.” The Doctor rolled over, bracing her hands on the metal floor and pushed herself upright. She screwed her eyes up and sucked in a breath between clenched teeth. Keeping one hand on the floor she held the other to her head, flinching when she brushed something painful hidden in her hair. Yaz stared as the Doctor’s blond locks shifted to reveal a thick trail of blood running down the side of her neck, disappearing into the dark blue lining of her coat.

“Doctor, that looks bad. And that wasn’t from the fall just now.”

The Doctor sheepishly looked back at her friend.

“I may have understated the extent of my injuries earlier.”

“How bad?”

“One of the monks hit me hard enough for me to fall into a statue. I caught my head on it and things went a bit blurry for a few minutes. The rest of it is just bruises from where they punched me.”

“So their punishment was to beat you up?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

The Doctor carefully touched the cut in her hair then withdrew her fingers, checking for fresh blood. Her sleeve slipped down her arm at the movement, revealing a thick ring of bruises. The Doctor tried to hide them but wasn’t quick enough, Yaz had grabbed her hand and pushed the sleeve further up her forearm. The bruises were dark, and clearly in the shape of fingers.

“Where else are you hurt?”   
“I’m fine.”

“Doctor, you are clearly not fine. You are dizzy enough to be still sat on the floor and you’ve said you’ve got a headache so you’ve probably got concussion and goodness knows what other injuries you’re not telling me about. What is stopping me from activating Protocol One to get us back home and dragging you to a hospital to get you looked at?”

“Because I don’t like hospitals. And the Tardis has a perfectly good medical scanner. But all it will say is that I need to take it easy for a day or two and I will be back to normal.”

“You know I trust you with my life, but I’d rather be safe than sorry. How do I use the medical scanner?”

 

* * *

 

“Minor concussion, head wound, bruised ribs, and deep bruising all over.” Yaz read off the projected scanner readings a minute later. “Like you said you’ve got to be careful for the next few days, bed rest recommended for the rest of today.” There was a beep. “Oh, it now says that you’re about to have a migraine.” The Doctor groaned.

“Brilliant, just when I thought my head couldn’t hurt any worse. Brought on by the concussion no doubt. I hope you are the others weren't planning on visiting Earth today because I’m not going to be in a fit state to pilot the Tardis in twenty minutes. Not that I am right now, to be honest.”

“Is there anything you could take to stop it? Someone must have cured it at some point in time”

“They managed to fix the problem in humans in a few hundred years in your future but Time Lord brains are similar enough to humans to get migraines but different enough that the cures have no effect. Just got to manage it the old human way - painkillers and a dark and quiet room until it goes away.”

Yaz managed to get the Doctor on her feet, propping her against the console when her balance failed her as she checked that the Tardis was parked somewhere safe. Satisfied at what she read on the scanner she let Yaz guide her as they made their drunken way down the Tardis corridors as the Doctor lent on her friend’s shoulder. 

“I feel a bit sick,” said the Doctor after a few steps out from the console room.

“Let me know if you are going to throw up. I’m sure the Tardis can rustle up a bathroom up for us if we need one.” There was the sudden sound of laughter from somewhere down a side corridor that made the Doctor flinch. Yaz couldn’t help but grin. “I think Ryan is letting Graham loose on youtube on his phone again.”

The Doctor’s room, when they reached the blue door, was dark when they entered, the Tardis raising the lights just enough for Yaz to steer the pair around the Doctor’s discarded clothes and technical junk. The Doctor sunk heavily on the bed, one hand clutching her head and the other sunk finger deep in the dark purple duvet. 

“Is there anything I should do or shall I leave you alone?” Asked Yaz, running her police first aid training through her head.

“Bathroom.” The Doctor flopped a hand in the direction of another doorway behind her. “Should be able to find a bowl of water and a cloth to clean my head. The Tardis should have left a painkiller for you to find too.”

Yaz emerged from the bathroom a minute later, carrying a small metal bowl filled with water, a face cloth and a small glass and metal tube. She put the bowl and cloth on the bedside table, handing the Doctor the tube.

“I’m guessing that’s the painkiller,” she said as the Doctor twisted one end. “It was the only thing on the side.” 

The Doctor didn’t reply, pushing a sleeve up and pressing the end of the tube to the crook of her elbow. She held it there for a few seconds, the liquid held inside the glass draining away, before it was removed and carelessly tossed towards a corner.

“Aren’t you going to clear that up?” Asked Yaz, propping the Doctor up as she started to list to one side. She got a hand wave in response.

“I’ll get to it later. Or the Tardis will. It’ll keep. You fancy cleaning my head up before that puts me to sleep?”

“Oh yeah.” Yaz toed off her shoes then grabbed the cloth and bowl and settled crossed legged on the bed next to the Doctor, bowl nestled between her legs. She motioned to the Doctor with the facecloth in her hand. It was white with some sort of yellow and green dinosaur-like creature embroidered in one corner. “I could only find this. I’m afraid it’s going to get ruined.”

“It’s ok. The Tardis has excellent stain removal skills.”

Yaz dunked the cloth in the water and wrung it out, carefully parting the Doctor’s hair with one hand and dabbed at the drying blood with the cloth in the other.

“I’m not going to break, Yaz,” said the Doctor after a few ineffectual seconds. “You can be firmer than that. And I don’t suppose you could speed up? I’m starting to see halos.”

“Sorry. I didn't want to hurt you.” Yaz tried to wield the cloth less cautiously, but still didn’t want to cause her friend more pain. It was one thing holding a gauze pad to a colleague's bloodless head during first aid training, cleaning real blood off a friend’s head was another.

The Doctor barked out a broken laugh.

“You can’t cause any more pain than I’m feeling, don’t worry. Speed is better at this point.” 

Rusty pink water started dribbling down the Doctor’s neck as Yaz worked, stopping when the flow met the collar of her coat.

“I’m afraid your clothes are getting even more blood on them.” she said. “And you should probably have taken your coat off.”

“I’m not going to sleep in them so don’t worry. And the Tardis will sort them out for me.”

 

* * *

“The instructors really weren't kidding when they said head wounds bleed a lot,” said Yaz as she scrubbed at the dried blood that was stubbornly sticking to the skin of the Doctor’s neck a few minutes later. “How’s your head holding up?”

“Still attached. You nearly done?”

“About there, yeah.”

Yaz finished up, mopping up the last of the water running across the Doctor’s skin. By now the Doctor’s eyes were pinched as she squinted in Yaz’s direction.

“Thanks Yaz. Leave the bowl in the bathroom, I’ll sort it out later. You go and enjoy yourself with the boys. No reason to ruin your day along with mine.”

“I’ll leave when I know that you are settled and don’t need anything else. I’ll get you a glass of water whilst you change. Dehydration isn’t going to help your head so try and drink at least a little bit of it when you can.” The Doctor carefully nodded and shuffled to her feet, one hand braced on the wall. Yaz left her and headed to the kitchen. When she returned the Doctor had changed into a pair of purple plaid pyjamas and was sitting back on the edge of the bed. She was hunched over, elbow against the wall and hand covering her eyes. She split her fingers as Yaz re-entered the room, peering up at her as she was offered the glass.

“Try drinking something.”

The Doctor shook her head, a tiny, cautious movement that Yaz barely recognised.

“Still feelin’ sick. If I try I’ll just throw up.”

Yaz placed the glass on the bedside table, taking care not to clonk it against the wood. She looked around the dim room, seeing if there was anything else she had to do to take care of the Doctor before she left her alone. 

The Doctor’s blood stained clothes had been tossed in a heap on a chair. Yaz decided to leave them, she had to trust the Doctor that she was telling the truth about the Tardis’s stain removing talents. She had managed to get many stains out of Yaz’s own clothes.

“Get into bed, Doctor,” said Yaz, picking up the bowl and cloth she had left on the bedside table and went to empty it in the bathroom sink. When she returned the Doctor had made it under the thick duvet, buried up to her eyes under it, head sunk heavily into thick, plump pillows.

The Doctor blinked drowsily up at her and Yaz smiled back. 

“You look like the painkiller has kicked in. Are you going to sleep now?”

“Nah.” was the soft reply. “Head hurts too much, the painkiller doesn't touch the pain, just makes me sleepy. But I’ll be fine Yaz, go be with the others. Tell them not to disturb me and make sure Graham realises that this wasn’t his fault. I should have warned you all not to touch anything so it fell to me to take the blame and the punishment.”

Yaz nodded.

“Will do, though it wasn’t your fault either. I hope you feel better soon and get to Tardis to get me if you need anything.”

The Doctor shut her eyes and murmured back. The already dim light dropped a fraction lower.

“Good night, Doctor.” Yaz whispered before shutting the door as quietly as she could, padding softly away from the closed door and towards her other two friends.


End file.
